Alice Blue
by iamstrangerthanyou
Summary: Luna Lovegood happens across a certain Weasley Twin during an evening stroll. A short series of events in the odd blonde's life that make a greater impact on her emotions then she bargained for.


Fred and Luna.

I haven't, don't and won't own Harry Potter or any of the characters in this story (much to my dismay)

Alice Blue.

He looked up from the contraption.

"That's very odd. Why did you make it?" she asked him curiously.

Nobody had asked him that yet. It would always be something like: What's it for? How does that bit work? Why. That was different.

"Well, I.. Er.." he started, trailing off. Why did he make it?

"To make people laugh. God know's we need laughter, at times like these..." he muttered.

"That's quite reasonable. Though, I must inquire, will it make you laugh?" she wondered.

"Well... If it makes everyone else happy, why should I matter?" he asked.

"You deserve to be happy. We all deserve to be content."

"Um, yeah. I guess so."

She gave him a small smile.

"What's you name?" he asked her. He felt guilty, because he'd seen her around the caste often enough.

"Luna."

Of course. Loony Lovegood. What a terrible nick name. He found the pit in his stomach respond angrily to his discovery.

"See ya 'round Luna," he got up off the bench, mindfully scooping up the bits and bobs he'd been charming together to create the new merchandise.

"Good bye, Fred Weasley."

"Wait! How'd you know which one I was?" he asked, amazed. Was he wearing one of mum's sweaters? No, of course not, he was in school which meant his everyday Gryffindor robes.

"It's quite obvious, really. You're twin and you have many seperate unique qualities, you know," she pointed out.

"Oh. Uh... Right. Care to expand?"

"Well, you're just a BIT taller. You're hair is more of an International Orange while George's is Tangelo Orange. You always ask if your prank victim is alright before George does, you spend a lot more time pondering then he does, your nose is a little crooked to the left, when his is to the right."

"OH. And your earlobes are a little longer!"

"Guh. Wow. You've noticed more about me in 4 years then I have in almost 18. Sounds like you watch me a lot, huh?" he winked at her.

Her cheeks turned much rosier than they had been, and her pale blue eyes stared down intently at her feet.

"Oh.. I-I don't _watch_ you, I just.. You're um.. A very.. Odd- I mean interesting character... And I um.." she stuttered.

"I get it. You're just very OBSERVANT," he emphasized.

"Y-yes. Quite. Exactly."

He grinned down at her, she seemed a good foot and a half shorter then his tall and lanky figure.

"I.. Ought to get back to the Ravenclaw Common Room," she mumbled.

"Allow me to escort you, Hogwarts' halls are no place for a young lady in the dark," he said, gesturing to the sunless sky.

"No, it's perfectly fine, I often sleep walk. Sometimes I wake up leaning over the edge of the Astronomy Tower, and the Nargles are only just able to stop me from the awful tumble..." she sighed dreamily, turning wobbly on her heel.

"That doesn't sound safe at all," he replied, ignoring her rejection and walking with her anyways.

"Hmm, it really isn't."

"What year are you?" he asked.

"Does it really matter at all? I think it's better to judge one on age by their imagination, for example, I could assume you to be seventy three," she murmured.

"That's an interesting way of thinking. I was just wondering though, you seem like you're in fourth or fifth year..." he took her remark as a compliment, and grinned boyishly.

"I'm a year three, but I'm fourteen, was last month," she complied proudly.

"Happy Belated Birthday," he said.

"And Happy almost Birthday to you!" she giggled.

"You know when my Birthday is?" he asked.

"I guessed. You're a prankster, it would only be right for you to have been born on the day pranks are celebrated- which is 48 hours from now!"

"Well, uh, thanks."

"You're most very welcome."

"...Where is Ravenclaw Tower?" Fred questioned dumbly.

"Here," she stopped walking and gestured slightly behind her to the spiraled staircase.

"Ah. Well, good night to you Luna," he bowed his head slightly and gave her one of his signature grins.

"Erm.. Yes, good evening Fred," she gave him a dreamy look and twirled around to skip up the stairs.

Luna found herself soon confronted by the raven statue that covered the House's entrance.

"Why is the letter E like London?" the raven demanded.

Almost immediately, she answered "Because it is the capitol of England."

It jumped aside to reveal a shadowed archway. Luna nodded gratefully and floated through. She was greeted by some dirty looks and nasty whispers, even some cruel giggles. She passively shrugged them off and headed for the second flight of stairs she would need to climb that night.

Luna pulled of her robes and changed into a long silky nightgown that seemed to match the exact color of her eyes, Alice Blue- which just so happened to be her mothers name. A-lice. ALICE. AAAAllliiicceee. She had been nine when that terrible experiment backfire occurred, which had given her plenty of time to become accustomed to the name, still it seemed foreign to her mind and tongue.

The color Alice Blue reminded her of her mother too, it's airily calm aura, the flawless pale glow it gave off, the fact it didn't seem to fit in any actual category because it was so very unique. Alice Blue was so light it could be the color of ice, yet it was to warm and welcoming to ever really come close to the cold unpleasantries of frozen water.

She crawled under the silvery blue and golden bronze duvet that complimented her dark, oak wood, four poster bed and drew the matching curtains. Luna flicked her wand at the bedside light, muttering the quick 'nox' she'd learnt in her first year at Hogwarts. The glow ceased, and it wasn't long before her eyelids became heavy and she could no longer keep awake.

. . .

Fred clambered into bed and succumbed to a long yawn.

"Thank god tomorrow's Friday..." George muttered from the bed next to his.

"I feel like it's been years since last weekend. You two doing anything interesting?" Lee asked tiredly.

"Fred and I are going to be planning for... We'll probably just lay around- sleep in, right Forge?" George hastily changed his response.

Fred did not reply, as he'd already drifted into a well needed slumber.

The lightning startled him awake. What time was it? He looked to the battered old watch on his bedside table and groaned inwardly, 2:30 in the morning. As silently as he could, he stood up out of bed, pulling a blanket around his shoulders, and tiptoed out of the dorm. He made his way down the stairs into the common room, past the tall windows, the rain pattered on the glass loudly. Discretely, he slipped through the portrait hole and slunk along the walls of the hallways, heading for the kitchen. Usually, he would have woken George to accompany him, but tonight it didn't strike him as a good idea. When he looked back on it, he found it the best decision he'd ever made in his life.

Just as he was about to round the corner, he saw it. Or rather, he saw her. She drifted like a ghost- hell, for a second he thought she was one. Her white-blonde hair and seemingly pigment-less skin sure made it an easy option. The fact that she was wearing the same colored night gown as the shade in her half open eyes- pale blue added to that.

"Luna?" his voice was barely audible.

She seemed to move aimlessly past him without any sign of recognition. It struck him, she'd only told him hours before, had she not? Luna was sleep walking. Dropping his earlier goal for food, he cautiously followed the angel like creature, staying just a bit behind her, but far enough from her as to prevent waking her.

He followed her for about five minutes, until it was quite obvious as to where they were headed. Luna floated up the stairs, and to the height of the astronomy tower. A clang of thunder rang out across the darkened sky, and the rain pattered down on the roof of the tower. Of course, Fred had forgotten it had been the storm that had woken him in the first place. 'Ghost' Luna slipped and skidded, but did not fail to make her way over the open balcony. She clasped her pale hands around the metal bars of the railing and leaned into the open air. Fred thought it had been going on for long enough.

"Luna! Wake up!" he shouted at her, over the thunder, carefully grasping her shoulders.

"Oh my.." she exclaimed, her eyes alarmed and confused.

"Are you alright?" he shouted, placing his other hand on her other shoulder, so she was fully facing him.

"I'm a bit cold!" she yelled. They were becoming drenched, as the balcony's overhang had stopped a few meters away.

"Yeah, as am I. Let's get back inside," he suggested. She hastily nodded and took his hand. He lead her back to the staircase. They climbed down and soon found themselves attempting to dry off behind a statue, as they certainly didn't want to get caught.

"This is hopeless, we aren't going to get any dryer like this," Fred sighed.

"I agree, maybe it's best to search for some towels?" she complied.

"Yeah.. Hey, we could go to the prefects bathroom and use some of theirs- Percy would always drone about how much softer and better quality they were..."

"I don't care what sort of towels they are- as long as they do their job," Luna muttered.

"Right, follow me."

The two tiptoed along the corridor, leaving behind a small trail of rain water. Eventually, they reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered.

"Hazelnut Stew," Fred mumbled.

To the left of the statue the wall opened up, revealing a hidden door.

"What an odd password," Luna whispered as they stepped into the large room, and the opening closed with a 'click' behind them.

He nodded and walked over to the large pile of fluffy white towels that sat beside the pool like bath tub. She gratefully took one from him and began to dry her hair.

Moments later, they sat side by side with their feet dipped in a half-filled tub of warm and bubbly water.

"The stained glass is beautiful..." Luna sighed, making small ripples in the water with her toes.

"Yeah. I'm glad the mermaid isn't here though, sometimes she can really get on my nerves," said Fred.

"The windows over there, though, with the four founders, those are amazing," she said, pointing to the other side of the room.

"Those are the four founders? I never noticed them," he said, surprised.

"Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw."

"Hmm."

"Some people say, there was a man that broke Rowena's heart- which is why she died at such an early age. Some people say, it was Godric," Luna exhaled calmly.

"Really? I had no idea- I'd heard it was the Bloody Baron. The lion and the raven, gallantry and wisdom."

"Others.. Say that Godric was the father of Helena Ravenclaw- most famous for stealing her mother's diadem."

"Wow. I s'pose we could ask her about it some time," Fred suggested half-heartedly.

"Oh trust me, I've tried. She seems to only be alright with speaking to me... Her ghost- of course- but she never talks about her father," Luna said.

"Huh."

"The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, the end of every place," Luna sung.

He didn't stop her, but instead listened to her with secret admiration.

"Mountains, they will crumble- Temples, they will fall, no man has or will survive, It's impossible, endless call."

"That's a nice tune," he said, really meaning it.

"Thank you Fred. My mum used to sing it to me, she learnt it off of her mum, who learnt it off of my great grandmother. It's two riddles, if you didn't notice. Maybe next time we see each other you could give me the answers," she smiled at him and stood up, drying her feet and leaving him alone in the room, haunted by her words and the presence of the four founders, staring down at him expectantly.

Fred Weasley never exchanged a single word with Luna Lovegood for the remainder of his stay at Hogwarts. Not in the corridors, not in class, not on the grounds, or even in DA meetings. He left the school early with a bang, filled with frivolous fireworks and exasperated, toad faced, pink women (just one, really). George and him opened Weasley's Wizard Wheezes officially in one of Diagon Alley's empty shops, and business was truly booming. It was only after the wedding that things took a turn for the worst. They were confined to the boundaries of the Burrow for quite some time, always watched by Death Eaters. The day they escaped to Shell Cottage, with Bill and Fleur, was not one he'd forget.

He had heard Luna was recovering there from her run in at Malfoy Manor, where she had been continuously tortured and pressed for information on the Golden Trio's whereabouts. Hearing this had only made him want to see her more- he had to know she was safe. It hurt him to hear when they arrived that she had just left for Hogwarts where she would hide out in the Room of Requirement along with Ginny, Neville, and select few other school rebels. He'd just have to wait a bit longer to know she was alright.

. . .

"What's going on?" George asked.

"It's happening. The battle- it's all happening. Harry's back at Hogwarts, they're hoping to...demote..Snape, Everyone's getting worked up! We're going to apparate to the Hog's Head in a couple minutes, once everyone's rounded up," Remus explained, hints of worry and excitement in his voice.

"This is unexpected," Fred muttered.

"Well it was going to happen sooner or later," George said, pulling on his shoes.

They soon were told to turn on their heel abruptly, and did so, finding themselves in the back of a terribly rickety tavern, climbing into the secret passage behind the painting of the young women who strangely sported the same knowing eyes as one Albus Dumbledore.

"I can't believe this didn't show on the map," George grumbled.

"Tell me about it, I swear, I had absolutely no idea about this tunnel..." Fred said.

They were welcomed into the Room of Requirement by hollers and shouts of joy. People were slapping them on the back and informing them as quickly as they could of what was to happen. Fred scanned the room, looking for something in particular he'd know when he saw it.

He grinned and ran over to her, the only person in the room with color.

"It's all a bit mad, don't you think?" he asked.

"Oh this? It seems perfectly normal to me- but they do call me Loony, so I don't think I should be one to judge," Luna smiled up at him.

"You look so different Luna," he said, and before she could reply, he pulled her into a hug to which she complied weakly.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's alright, I'm just a bit fragile I suppose... From.. Um.." she looked away, pain glazed across her eyes.

"We don't have to talk about this."

"By different you meant deathly colorless and practically skin and bones, right?" she murmured, still looking away.

"Erm..right," he said. He hadn't. What he wanted to tell her then was that she looked more gorgeous and elegant then he'd ever seen her before.

"I suppose that'll have been the Heliopath's doing, burning away my health..."

An awkward silence wiggle it's way between them.

"Oh- I think I figured out the answers to those two riddles-" he started.

"C'mon- we've got to get downstairs, the students have been called to an assembly, Snape know's Harry's back!" somebody shouted.

Fred cursed under his breath and when he looked up, Luna was already on her way out of the room to the Great Hall.

He followed the Order through the school to the closed doors of the Great Hall.

It all happened a bit fast. The start of the battle, Snape leaving, the charm placed over and around the school to keep evil out for as long as possible, watching Luna run after Harry, the fighting, the first death he'd seen, more dueling and dying.

. . .

Luna didn't know Fred too well. She'd encountered him a total of seven times in her life, plenty of which seemed incredibly insignificant. Though, to her it felt like she's just watched her dearest friend fall.

She watched the Death Eater Rookwood curse the wall, she watched it explode, she watched him die. It didn't take too long for her to snap out of what she wished was a dream. George had let out a yell and taken little time to send the killing curse at Rookwood. Luna ran over to the lifeless body of what was Fred Weasley. She knelt beside it and brought his frail head to be cushioned by her knees, rocking him slowly back and forth. Percy and George had run over.

"Fred- mate? Y-you all right? Fred..?" tears streamed down his dusty face, he'd somewhat collapsed over the body.

"G-George, come with me, Percy, please.. *cough* aid," Luna tried as best she could to haul Fred onto her shoulders without bawling. She failed. Percy seemed to be sobbing uncontrollably, but none the less, he carried out what Luna could not do, and began to pull Fred back towards the Great Hall, where people were being treated. She began to follow, only to halt seconds after.

She turned on her heel and ran back to George. He'd been limping slowly and angrily after them. She grabbed him by the hands and began to pull him faster, until they reached the great hall, where she sat him down on one of the benches and pulled him into a hug. He hugged her back with more force then he could muster, and as much as it killed her to keep it up, as she was somewhat suffocating from remorse and her current physical situation, she let him. He cried into her shoulder and she sung the riddle song to him.

"The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space..." she sighed. Luna hadn't bargained on this at all. She didn't think that Fred, of all people that most definitely didn't deserve death, would get it.

"...It's impossible, endless call."

She helped him up, and he leant a considerable amount of weight on her. She pulled him over to his family where he was welcomed sadly and a large quantity of tears was shed.

The next part was even scarier, the waiting part, the anticipation. When Harry Potter was proclaimed dead, Luna felt like crumbling. George didn't really know what to feel, he was lost in his own mind. She could only leap for joy when he sprung out of the half-giant Hagrid's arms and made a dash for it. This time, the Death Eaters left, rather then stay with their 'Lord'. The remaining students, professors, Order, and DA members ran back into the hall, where- guess what? MORE waiting commenced.

They soon realized it. They'd won. Harry Potter had defeated Voldemort. It was over. She was alive. Harry Potter and his friends were alive. The one human being she'd found herself slowly falling in love with, wasn't.

. . .

"Luna, my dearest, ought you to be getting out of bed by now?" Xenophilius called up the winding stairs.

She sighed and slowly slipped out of bed. It had been almost two years since the Final Battle at Hogwarts. The date was February 17, World Human Spirit Day. And her birthday.

She clambered down the stairs sporting bare feet, a lavender nightgown and a pale green robe with intricate yellow designs gracing it's material.

"Happy Birthday to you! May the day be filled with good spirits of all types," her father kissed her on the head after she'd sat down at the table.

"Thank you daddy, I think I'd just like to spend this day by myself," she murmured.

"Whatever you wish!" he smiled. Luna was thankful that her father wasn't ever hurt or curious when she decided she wanted to be away from civilization for long periods of time. Sometimes, they'd go a month without acknowledging each other, and that was just the way they liked living.

She grabbed a pear from the bowl in the middle of the table and walked back up to her room, deciding that she would get dressed and go for a walk. Throwing on some bright purple jeans and a royal blue shirt, she gasped and yanked them off, realizing it was exactly what she'd worn the day of the battle. She resolved to burn them later that day- better to just leave them out for the nargles, in fact. Instead, she changed into an Alice Blue sun dress and bewitched a lily flower silver to tuck behind her ear. Today was a special day, so she'd plait her hair down her back, rather then keep it splayed across her shoulders like normal.

She stepped out into the brisk air, being February, she was considering herself lucky to have been granted such remarkably mild weather. She walked across her garden path to the slope that let into the forest, barefoot. Her intricate braid swung low with every step she took. Eventually she made it to the woods and refrained from hugging her bare shoulders that had only been graced with thin spaghetti straps because of the cold. Surrounded by trees the wind had little effect on her. She walked the path she'd created as a child with her mother, hopping the Crumple-Horned Snorkack traps mindfully and narrowly swerving the prickly poison berry bushes. Soon, she had made it to her special clearing. She twirled in circles and spun in patterned shapes, dancing to her own symphony. She collapsed into the middle of the wild flower littered area and gazed up at the blank sky, the pine trees looming.

"Luna. Luna Lovegood?" somebody asked monotonously.

She shot up, surprised, jumping to her feet and whipping around on the spot. He backed away, slightly intimidated by her sudden actions. She relaxed immediately.

"George Fabian Weasley!" she exclaimed happily.

"How did you know my full name?" he asked, frowning.

"If you'd like to know mine, I'd be happy to comply," she said, ignoring his question.

"Alright."

"Luna Alice Lovegood," she murmured, swaying over to him.

"Pretty name. What's the Alice from?" he asked.

"My mother's name was Alice," she sighed.

"Oh."

She tentatively leaned in and wrapped her arms around his torso.

"It's lovely to see you again, George," she murmured, kissing him on the cheek, and guiltily imagining him to be the other one.

He cautiously placed his hands on the dip of her back and buried his face in her blonde-white hair.

"Yeah. You too Luna.


End file.
